Illuminated sign



Patented May 17, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT ol-"ries CECIL VAN WYGK AND RALPH G. HYDE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNORS To CLAUDE NEON ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS CORPORATION, LTD., OF WILMINGTON, DELA WARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE ELUMINATED SIGN Application filed January 5, 1951. Serial No. 506,623.-

Our invention relates to illuminated signs and has particular reference to signs lllllmlnated by means of gaseous discharge tubes.

' In sigh construction it has been the practice to provide a casing having a front wall upon which suitable sign indicia is placed, an illuminating device being placed within the casing so as to send its rays of light through. the sign indicia.

We have discovered that such sign construction may be illuminated by means of tubular lamps located within the casing and that by arranging a reflector in the manner hereinafter described, a very pleasing appearance 1s given the sign, this appearance being particularly characterized by the fact that the sign appears to be illuminated by a multiplicity of sources of light considerably in excess of the number of light sources.

actually used.

It is an object of our invention to provideect of our invention is to provide a sign construction in which the source of illumination comprises one or more gaseousdischarge tubes and 1I1 Wh1Ch connecting contact devices for SLlDDlVlIlL' current to the lampsare used as asupport for the lamps.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following specification read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which I 1 Figure 1- is a front elevational view of a sign-constructed in accordance with our invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of our sign construction taken along the line II-II of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a Vertical sectional view of our sign construction, taken along the line IIIIII of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, we have illustrateda sign construction comprising a caslng 1 hav1ng a rear wall 2, a front wall-3,

and continuous side walls 4 connecting thev translucent material, such as glass and similar material.

Immediately beyond the front wall 3, we have illustrated an opaque masking device 5 which may be constructed of any suitable material to obscure certain portions of the .front wall 3 to prevent light from passing through the front wall except at such-pertions orpoints' as will define the signindicia to be exhibited by the sign. For example, the embodiment of our invention herein illustrated shows the word Fire as cut out or left blank in the opaque mask 5 which is immediately beyond the front. wall 3, so that light from the interior of the casing may pass outwardly only through such portions of the front wall as are not obscured by the mask.

Immediately behind the front wall 3, we have illustrated-a reflector 6, this reflector being preferably formed of aplurality of groups of reflecting surfaces, each group comprising a pair of flat reflecting surfaces 7 and 8 arranged longitudinally within the casing 1. and arranged at an angle to each other so that the inner edges 9 of both surfaces 7 and 8 are joined to constitute an angled reflector of substantially V-shaped cross section. It will be noted that the reflecting surfaces 7 and 8 are not only angled with referthe outermost edges of the reflecting surfaces 7 and 8 arev arranged close to the front wall 3 while the meeting inner edges 9 are spaced at a considerable distance from the front wall 3.

The means for illuminating our sign construction is illustrated as comprising a plurality of tubular lamps 10 either of the incandescent type or of the discharge type which may be made with a relatively small too ' lamps diameter, one of which is provided for each of the groups of reflector surfaces 7 and 8, the

eing positioned parallel to the longitudinal axis of the reflecting surfaces 7 and 8 which constitute the associated reflector group. The lamp or tube 10 is preferably apaced inwardly of the juncture of the reecting surfaces 7 and 8, the preferred location being just slightly to the rear of a center line represented by the dotted line 11 illustrated in Figure 2. I

. ith the lampsor tubes 10 located in this position, the appearance of that part of the sign illuminated by any one of the tubes 10 will show a plurality of distinctive bands of I light, one of which bands representsthe direot transmission of light from the lamp 10 through the front wall 3 of the casing, while the remaining bands of light. are constituted by a plurality of reflections of the tube 10 from the reflecting surfaces 7 and 8.

Such multiplicity of bands of light will produce the appearance indicated in the shaded lines 12 of Fig. 1, the white spaces between the shaded lines representing the appearance of the band of light, while the shaded portion represents a section of the sign indicia w hich is illuminated to a much less intensit fieferring, particularly, to Figures 2 and 3, it will be observed that a pair of mounting plates 13 and 14 are illustrated as being secured as by means of screws 15 to the rear wall 2 of the casing-1. These mounting plates are preferably formed of insulating material and have attached to the front faces thereof a plurality of spring clips 16 which constitute-both supporting holders for the tubes or lamps 10 and the means for conducting electric current to the terminals of the tubes. The clips 16, illustrated in Fig. 2, are shownas extending a considerable distance in advance of the mounting plate 14, the con- I tacting portion 17 of the clips being formed with a suitable curvature to conform with the size and shape of the contact terminals of the lamps, which will be engaged thereby. Thus the location of thelamps 10 relative to the re-' flector 6 may be prefixed by .predetermining thc length of the clips 16.

With this arrangement of clips 16, ,the incandescent or gaseous tubes 10 may be readily inserted in the sign or removed therefrom and by interconnecting the clips 16, as by means of conductors 18, a number of straight tubes or lamps 10 may be employed to form a continuous lamp of any desired length depending upon the number of units 10 which may be employed in the sign.

W have illustrated at 19 and 20 a pair of -ter 'nalconductors which may be connected to any suitable source of electric current for furnishing power to the lamps 10.

With t "e construction illustrated and dc scribed herein, any suitable sign indicia may flecting surfaces 7 and 8 may be provided to the rear thereof. By arranging merely one lam .or tube 10 for each group or reflecting sur aces, the appearance of the finished sign, when illuminated, is that of a sign iliuiplinated by a great number of bands. of

hile we have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of our invention, .Wedo not desire to be limited to any of the details shown or described herein, except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim: 7

1. .In an illuminated sign, a casing, a translucent front wall for said casing, a reflector behind said front wall comprislnga plurality of flat reflectors forming a plurality of a jacent groups of two reflectors each, the two reflectors of each group being arranged in V-shaped cross section relative to each other with the open side of the V directed toward said front wall, and the conti nous" reflectors of each two adjacent groups orming a V-shaped cross section relative to each other with the open side of the V directed away from said front wall, and a tubular lamp disposed between the reflector forming each of said groups and parallel with the adjacent edges of the reflectors forming each group.

2. Inan illuminated sign, a casing, a trans lucent front wall for said casing, a reflector behind said front wall comprising a plurality of flat reflectors forming a plurality of adjacent grou s of two reflectors each, the two reflectors of each group being arranged in V-shaped cross sectlon relatiyeto each other with the open side of the V directed toward said front wall, and the contiguous reflectors of each two adjacent oups forming a V-shaped cross section re ative to each other with the open side of the V directed away from said front wall, a tubular lamp disposed between the reflector forming each of said groups and parallel with the adjacent edges of the reflectors forming each group and spaced further from the open side of. the

V formed by reflectors of the associated group 

